15 Bond

Linda entered the pack house, heading to the Alpha's office. The words "come in" were heard as she knocked on the door.

"Good morning, Alpha."

He smiled wearily, dark bags standing out beneath his eyes. "Just call me Harry, Linda."

"How are you coping?" Harry, Duke and Bethany were best friends, and some might argue that the Alpha was closer to his Gammas than to his Betas, which was admittedly unusual.

"Badly, but I'll get over it." He mumbled, running his fingers through his hair. "But I don't think you came here to discuss my mental health."

"Hikari, Korū, and I want to look for Alina. Will you give us your permission?"

The Alpha chuckled. "I know you'd still go even if I said no. So yes, you may. But you'll have a hard time convincing John to let you. He worries, Linda."

She felt a small stab of guilt. The rest of the pack was still trying to recover from the loss of their previous Gammas, who were well loved by the pack, and were trying to adjust to the new ones. Additionally, her leaving, even for a short time, would mean that all the Gamma duties would fall on John's shoulders.

"I'll go talk to him. Thank you, Alpha."

Kaito was leaving the hospital with Aiki, healed enough to at least make a trip back to Japan. Korū was trying to get Kaguya to cooperate and go with Kaito, but the damned cat wasn't gonna make things easy for him.

Linda walked towards the sound of yells and meows. "I got Alpha's permission, but I need to tell John and talk to him."

"Go ahead. We'll probably take… a while, anyway." Hikari glanced at her brother. Kaguya was clinging onto him, yowling hilariously loudly and stubbornly, while Korū screeched even louder. Kaito was just… watching.

Linda laughed lightly at the sight and went to track down her mate. She was unsurprised as she found him on the field, watching glumly as the wolves trained. He, too, had been badly affected by the death of Duke and Bethany. While Linda herself was not close to them personally, she could still feel the loss.

There would be no more Bethany to fist bump when she finally nailed a new move. No Duke to stand and intimidate her while she trained. No more gossiping with her friends about how cute they looked together. No more fun training sessions that they intentionally made to be fun and entertaining. No running through the woods, hoping that today would be the day where she hunted more game than her beloved Gammas.

Yet for John, it was a different matter altogether. He looked up to them as his role models after his mother died from rabies and his father committed suicide soon after. Despite being only nine years older than him, the two Gammas took up the position as his new parental figures, this they had been a crucial part of John's life. It was like grieving for his parents all over again, with Gamma duties on the side.

Yet Linda wasn't really helping with the emotional part, and she was going to dump more of the Gamma workload on him. Should she just leave Hikari and Korū to it?

No, Alina was her friend, and while John was important to her, Alina was too. John still had an emotional support system of the Alpha and Beta families, Alina had virtually no one.

At least that she knew of.

Despite only truly meeting her a few weeks ago, she had heard stories from pack members before. She was sort of a local legend, the devil in the disguise of a very tiny werewolf, and there were still occasional rumours about where she had gone and what she had been doing the past five years.

While John had people other than Linda to support and help him, Alina didn't. She had grown distant from her parents, not even coming to visit the five years she was gone. Linda guessed that she still hadn't let go of the death of her brother. No one really knew that story. Only Alina did. She was the only one of the group to survive.

"John," she said, walking up to him. He turned around and hugged her, smiling softly before kissing the top of her head.

"Hey, Linda. What brings you here?" He asked, turning back to the training wolves, one arm wrapped around her shoulders.

"It's about Alina." She answered, her own arms around his waist as she leaned against his side. He was silent for a moment.

"I was wondering when you'd bring that up." She looked up at him in shock as his dark green eyes met hers.

"I could feel your worry from miles away, Linda." This caused her to blush. She was a bad mate, really, for not remembering to block out her negative emotions from John to keep him from worrying about her, when he was the one going through the emotional pain.

"I'm sorry." She whispered, leaning her head on his chest. "I really want to go. It's not that I don't love you, and that you don't mean anything to me, but she needs me-"

"-more than I do. I know, Linda. I understand. I can go, I'm not going to stop you. You may be mine, my mate, but that's not your only role. You're also a friend. A good one, at that. I'll await your return, and I promise I'll still be here when you get back. Don't worry about me. I love you."

"I love you too." She smiled, gazing up at him. "See you."

She didn't deserve him. Or anyone, for that matter.

She gave him a peck on the lips before turning to find Hikari and Korū again.

Korū had given up on the "god-forsaken cat", as he called it. Kaguya was curled around Hikari's neck like a furry scarf, and Kaito was doing absolutely nothing to help. He just stood there and laughed.

"Guys, get ready. We can leave any time." Linda said.

"Looks like you get my cat, then," Kaito said, amused. "I'm going home. I'll talk to the dragons for you." He left with Aiki.

"How do you want to start? We need to find a lead of some sorts."

"MEOW." Kaguya called from his spot around Hikari's neck. "MROW."

Linda rolled her eyes. "Very helpful, guys." There was literally no trail to follow. Alina had covered it the moment she set foot outside our territory, giving them no lead at all…

Kaguya leaped off Hikari, running towards a supposedly random direction. He turned back to stare at them with bright gold eyes. "MEOW."

Linda squinted, confused. "Is he…? Does he know something?"

"MEOW. MROW."

"Maybe."

Linda sighed. "Go pack first. I'll meet you guys on the far end of the field."

"We have nothing else to pack-"

"Yeah, we packed already. We were planning to go back with our uncle but this happened."

"Great, I grabbed my stuff before. Let's go."

Korū picked up his backpack and went off after Kaguya.

"Off we go…" Linda murmured to herself.